THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: THE CIVILIANS; 9/11 Set Army Contractor On Path to Abu Ghraib

Thirty-three-year-old Steven Stefanowicz, fresh out of the Navy, arrived at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq as a contract interrogator last October, just as the prisoner abuses were getting under way.

He had no military experience in interrogation. As a junior Navy intelligence specialist, a petty officer third class, he did all of his work in an office, reading and analyzing intelligence reports, the Navy said. But just three months later, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba began his investigation of prisoner abuses and found that Mr. Stefanowicz was directing some of the military police officers linked to abuses. He was, therefore, ''directly or indirectly responsible'' for the abuses, the general wrote.

Friends describe Mr. Stefanowicz as a popular, natural leader. In the mid-1980's, he was a member of his high school student government in eastern Pennsylvania for three years. Last year, he quickly became a team leader among the contract interrogators at Abu Ghraib.

But Mr. Stefanowicz is also an enigma. At 6-foot-5, he is a towering figure. Friends and associates say his manner is easy, deferential. Because of his size, a former boss said, ''he almost went out of his way to be nonthreatening.'' A onetime girlfriend who is still in contact with him described Mr. Stefanowicz in an interview as ''a gentle giant, generous to the nth degree.''

Saddam Saleh Aboud, an Iraqi who was held at the prison last fall and who said he had been the subject of some abusive behavior, identified one of his captors as ''Steven.'' To Mr. Aboud, it appeared that ''Steven was responsible for everything.''

''He was the one who told them what to do,'' Mr. Aboud said. But he added, ''He did not do any torturing himself.''

Mr. Aboud described Steven as a tall man with a goatee. A colleague who served at Abu Ghraib with Mr. Stefanowicz last fall and who declined to be identified, said Mr. Stefanowicz was the only person at the prison then who fit that description and had contact with prisoners.

Henry E. Hockheimer Jr., Mr. Stefanowicz's lawyer, said that his client was innocent of any wrongdoing and that he did nothing more than what he was ordered to do. And Mr. Hockheimer noted a disconnect between the ''six lines in the 53-page'' Taguba report that accuse Mr. Stefanowicz of wrongdoing and the failure to substantiate those accusations elsewhere in the document. Mr. Hockheimer acknowledged that the voluminous unpublished annexes to the report may provide more detail.

The atmosphere at the prison appeared to be loose and informal, with unclear demarcations of responsibility. CACI Inc., the company in Alexandria, Va., that hired Mr. Stefanowicz and sent him to Iraq on an Army contract, notes in its job advertisements for other civilian interrogators that they are likely to work ''under minimal supervision.'' A recent letter from several Senate Democrats urging an investigation of contractors in Iraq noted that ''these companies remain largely unregulated.''

As if to illustrate that, one abuse photograph taken at Abu Ghraib last fall shows several people standing over a pile of naked Iraqis. A large man in camouflage pants and a T-shirt is bent over with his hand apparently on or near a prisoner's neck.

Guy Womack, a lawyer for Army Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr., who is also shown in the photograph, said his client identified the large man as Adel Nakhla, a civilian translator who was an employee of the Titan Corporation. Mr. Nakhla is listed as a suspect in the Taguba report.

Early this month, Ralph Williams, a spokesman for Titan, said: ''We have no contracts that involve the physical handling of prisoners. Our only services are linguistic services.''

On Tuesday, he declined to speculate on what the Titan employee was doing in that picture.

Mr. Stefanowicz is not shown in any of the photographs that have been made public. He has not been charged with any crime. Until last week, he was still working at Abu Ghraib, though he was moved recently to an administrative job. The former girlfriend, Joanna Buttfield, said he returned to the United States a few days ago. Mr. Hockheimer, his lawyer, declined to comment on her statement or say where his client was.

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Mr. Stefanowicz is in legal limbo. It is unclear who, if anyone, might prosecute him. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wrote to a member of Congress this month that ''disciplining contractor personnel is the contractor's responsibility.'' And Mr. Stefanowicz's employer, CACI, has said repeatedly that it has no information that any of its employees in Iraq have done anything wrong.

In a conference call with financial analysts early this month, J. P. London, chief executive of CACI, said he believed Mr. Stefanowicz had done ''a damn fine job.''

In an interview a few days later, Mr. London noted that the Taguba report ''is actually quite old now.''

''If someone is brought up on charges,'' he added, ''we will respond.''

Justice Department officials said they had not decided even whether they had jurisdiction to prosecute contractors who worked at Abu Ghraib.

While still at Abu Ghraib early this month, Mr. Stefanowicz appeared to be thinking about fleeing to the other side of the world. A friend from Australia, where Mr. Stefanowicz lived for 18 months before joining the Navy in 2002, reported receiving an e-mail message from him this month. He wrote, ''It's safe to say I've seen enough for a lifetime here in Iraq, and it is definitely time to come home'' to Australia, according to a newspaper account in The Australian on May 4.

Mr. Stefanowicz grew up in Telford, Pa., a small town about 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia. He graduated from Souderton Area High School in 1988, where he had been a center on the basketball team and class leader. A classmate, Kimberly Hayes, described him as ''very popular, a real nice guy'' who was ''involved in all the activities'' at the school.

Ms. Hayes, like many others who knew him, said the accusations against Mr. Stefanowicz were a surprise and out of character for the man they knew.

Soon after graduating from the University of Maryland in 1995, Mr. Stefanowicz joined the Navy Reserve, following a military tradition for many men in his family. A Navy spokesman said he was given an assignment in intelligence, most likely because he asked for it. He served in Pennsylvania, Washington and Florida.

In the late 1990's, he met Ms. Buttfield, an Australian who was working in the United States as an occupational therapist. He moved to Adelaide, Australia, with her in 1999 and worked as recruiter specializing in filling jobs in information technology for the Morgan & Banks company. In an interview, his former boss, Peter Emmerton, described him in uncompromisingly warm terms, saying he was ''the most reliable, straight-up-and-down, good human you could imagine, gentle as a lamb.''

Ms. Buttfield said the attacks on Sept. 11 had affected him deeply, and within a few weeks he had moved back to the United States and asked for a full-time, active-duty position in the Navy. He served as an intelligence specialist in Muscat, Oman, until last year. A Navy spokesman said his military record ''shows not a blemish.'' Last year the Navy awarded him the meritorious service and other medals that go to sailors for exemplary service.

Last September, he left the Navy. The secret or top-secret clearance he held as a result of his time in the Navy made him marketable, and the next month he was in Iraq working for CACI and earning more than $100,000 a year.

Ms. Buttfield said she had spoken with him several times in the last week but declined to say what he might have told her about his experience at Abu Ghraib. Still she did say, ''I think it's possible he found himself in a compromising position, if in fact he is guilty.''

Karen Middleton contributed reporting from Canberra, Australia, for this article, and Jill Capuzzo from Telford, Pa.

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A version of this article appears in print on May 19, 2004, on Page A00013 of the National edition with the headline: THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: THE CIVILIANS; 9/11 Set Army Contractor On Path to Abu Ghraib. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe